Issues such as immigration, abortion rights, and racism have been the topics of heated debates. For some, it may be difficult to express personal opinions about such topics freely, without fear of rebuke. However, The Voice of Townsend Harris is a club that strives to create a safe open space for discussion.

Created by junior co-presidents Sarah Moon and Ian Chen, The Voice of THHS allows members to freely express their opinions. The club’s mission is to serve “students who wish to share their experiences, learn about the various ‘isms’ plaguing society, and organize to elicit change,” said Ian.

The club meets every Monday after school and focuses on what Ian calls “educating and empowering students to act with passion and produce substantial change while utilizing the support of each other.”

Ian continues, “[we] urge people to think critically about the world around us, how power is distributed, used, abused, and how we, as students, can still form a collective and take power where it once was absent.”

Junor Devesh Permanan joined the club because it “raises awareness about societal issues that most sources of popular media neglect. In terms of knowledge about today’s world, I feel the club can promote change for those groups we don’t hear about that need it most.”

The members plan to form a “Human Trafficking Unit,” to take a stand against it. Junior Genova Brown comments, “It definitely could help people become aware of the issues that are going on and help ignorant people to see all sides of an issue.”

“We want people to enter a space where they can feel completely comfortable with speaking out (as opposed to a classroom setting, maybe) and feel included,” Ian exclaims.